Midnight Confession
by recipe for insanity
Summary: Mello wakes up in a tizzy, but nothing leaves him angrier than finding Matt with Near in the late hours of the night, especially when he's been hinting at wanting more from the redhead gamer.


**Author's Note:** _hints of future underage sex, but seriously, in the USA, the average 14-year-old has already experienced the bliss of true romance. I kid you not… and yes that's sarcasm folks._

_Also, even though this story was written a long time ago, the Matt, Mello and Near portrayed here are the same from my recent story, **Close Encounters of the Third Kind.**_

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Mello bolted upright in bed, immediately aware that Matt was no longer beside him. A sour expression marred his pretty facial features in the discovery that his Matt "detector" now extended to his sleeping subconscious.

_What the hell was wrong with him?_

Normally, he slept like the dead. Matt had carried him to L's study once in the black of night for God knows what reason, but even though Matt must have stumbled drunkenly under Mello's weight, huffed and puffed and banged him about; he still had not awakened. Only when L discovered the two of them curled up and entwined on the couch the following morning had Matt been able wake him up.

_So then why now could the simple absence of Matt leave him panicked? And where was Matt?_

Mello scratched the back of his head as he rolled out of bed. He wasn't going to be able to sleep until Matt was beside him again. He pulled his leather pants on, hopping on both feet to barely pull the low-riders up past his jutting hip bones. Even if Matt still let him sleep in the nude, which Mello took secretly as a sign that Matt might not be as disinterested as he acted, he had best not expose himself to Roger's wrath any more than he had already done so this week.

Silently, he walked into their common room. No Matt there. Where else could you play games in the middle of the night without being heard? Mello smiled. Matt was so busted.

Mello slipped into L's study, steadily but quietly approaching the redhead who was in the middle of stealing a Lamborghini rip-off in the latest Grand Theft Auto. Matt's arms stiffly held outright, unbent at the elbows, were at odds with the ease in which he navigated the pixilated streets. He had the television muted. _And what was that thing in Matt's lap?_

"What the fuck, Matt? Near's lying in your lap."

Matt shushed him. "Tone it down, Mello, or you'll wake him up."

Mello frowned, anger and betrayal mixing with his surprise. "What do you care? We hate Near."

"You do. I never have and don't."

Mello nearly doubled over as Matt's words registered. He would rather have had Matt punch him in the gut than feel this pain spiking through him quicker than chocolate after fasting for Lent. "Tell me you're joking."

"I'm not. I always let Near sleep on me after his breathing treatments, ever since L left." Matt's tone saddened as he saw Mello's face harden. "You just never woke up when I did."

Mello clenched his fists even as he moved closer to Matt so that he could see Near more clearly. He peeked over Matt's shoulder. _How could his hated rival look so damn cute!_ Reluctantly, he sat down behind Matt and rested his chin on the other's shoulder so he could peer down at the queer sight of Near in Matt's lap. "You should've told me before now, though."

"I didn't want you to feel left out, and I couldn't help it. Honest, Mels! You wouldn't wake up, ever!" Matt fervently apologized.

"That's why you dragged me here that one night, wasn't it?" Mello asked. He may be second to Near but he was no dummy.

"Yeah!" Matt smiled. His excitement over Mello's willingness to listen evident in the broad grin. "I hated leaving you out, but after that night, L told me to quit. You nearly punched me into the next burrow even in your sleep."

"Why not tell me in the morning?" Mello asked.

"What was there to tell? Hey, Mels, do you mind if Near, L and I hang out in his study while you sleep?"

Mello tried not to feel jealous. He really did, but it was hard to handle that L and Near had been allowed to be a part of Matt's life in some way that he hadn't.

"See!" Matt whispered in frustration when he saw Mello's expression. "You hate me now!"

"No," Mello replied, unwilling to infuse any real emotion into the half-hearted denial.

Matt sighed and shrugged Mello's head off. He threw the controller toward the television. "Yeah, whatever, Mels. You sound like you've lost your best friend."

"Haven't I?" Mello hotly accused. "You're supposed to love me best!"

A sprinkling of pink covered the bridge of Matt's nose and his freckles usually barely noticeable, lit up over Mello's outburst. "I do… like you best," he sputtered, apparent embarrassment keeping him from repeating the "L" word Mello had freely used. "Buh…uh…_but_," Matt finally managed to get out, "Near's cute, don't you think?"

Mello looked down at the slumbering brat. _Sure, Near was cute, but what did he care. Matt was his, right? _

"So he's like a cute, cuddly kitten? What more do you want to do with him besides hold him?" Mello asked suspiciously.

"Nothing that requires a 'Father forgive me' like with you," Matt uttered disgustedly before whipping his head around to catch the slow, sly grin forming on Mello's face.

"Matty, I had no idea," Mello teased. He maneuvered his chin back on Matt's shoulder so his gloating gaze held Matt's tormented one.

"Liar," Matt hissed. "You've been doing everything you can for the past two weeks to drive me mental. If you straddle me one more time in the hallway…**.**" He couldn't find air to breathe much less find rational thoughts to voice when Mello's eyes drooped slowly with lustful intent. But words weren't necessary.

Mello held Matt's head steady to keep him from coming off the floor in flurried nervousness or dumping Near in his eagerness to meet Mello halfway.

"You'll do what?" Mello dared and then kissed Matt with everything he had.

Matt floated away on cloud nine. He couldn't concentrate on any one thing. There was too much of Mello to explore, feel…, to partake of that his hands went into hyper-drive. Mello's surprisingly soft lips broke through the haze and then his tongue. The taste of chocolate that followed, expected. Matt pulled Mello forward. A moan escaped Mello when Matt decided things were progressing too slowly.

And then a soft voice tinted with sarcasm brought them both crashing back to reality with painful swiftness. "To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?"

Near's eyes still lidded by sleep kept both Matt and Mello from pitching him onto the floor. He was hardly awake. He stretched and yawned and emitted the most adorable peepish pop when his mouth closed again.

Mello shook his head in disgust over his newly honed acceptance of Matt's pet.

"Near, hey, are you awake?" Matt asked softly.

A small nod.

"He is now," Mello heatedly answered for the younger boy. "That's what you get for keeping secrets from me."

Another blush graced Matt's face. Not that Mello minded. "Near, you want me to carry you to bed?" Matt offered, unable to look at either Near or Mello and instead grabbed the controller to turn the game off.

Near sat up, pushed forward and pulled himself into a standing position on his knees so that he was face-to-face with Matt and Mello. He looked from Matt to Mello then back to Matt. Mello smirked at Matt's insistence on avoiding all eye contact with them.

"So, you ready for bed?" Mello demanded.

Near smiled at Mello. "Almost."

The night could not get any weirder. Certainly not! Near had just smiled at Mello and he had smiled back before he could catch himself. _What the fuck had just happened here?_

Before Mello had a chance to think any further, smallish hands gripped his shoulders and dipped him down for a hug and a kiss. A kiss on the lips. And… a kiss that really wasn't all that bad and maybe even a bit nice, especially when tentative fingers slid up the nape of his neck, into his hair and twined locks of it round and round. And ended much too soon.

"Thanks for sharing Matt with me." As if that absolved Near of everything.

Matt stared, shock overriding his discomfort over being caught molesting Mello with Near in his lap. Near, aware of Matt's incapacitated state, kissed him fully on the mouth too. He did not linger like he had with Mello though. He was sure that Mello wouldn't be so accepting of this kiss.

"Thanks Matt," he said quietly, scrambling backwards off the redhead and watching Mello for any sudden movement. None came. Mello lazily leaned against Matt's back; his head propped on Matt's shoulder again.

"So Near, what d'you think of us?"

The predatory-tinged tone was not wasted on the pale, feeble-looking boy matching Mello smirk for smirk. Near wasn't first for nothing.

"Same time, tomorrow night?"


End file.
